Donor Adds $30-Million to His Pledge to Ariz. Law School; Other Gifts

Several non-profit institutions have received big gifts.

* The University of Arizona’s College of Law, in Tucson, will receive an additional $30-million from James E. Rogers, augmenting a $20-million pledge Mr. Rogers made five months ago (The Chronicle, May 7).

Mr. Rogers, owner of Sunbelt Communications, in Las Vegas, Nev., will pay out $50-million over 20 years. The funds will be used to provide scholarships, improve programs, hire more faculty members, and support expansion.

Mr. Rogers attached one stipulation: The college must not use the windfall as an excuse to reduce its operating budget.

* The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, in New York, has received $25-million from the financier Julian H. Robertson, Jr., a member of its board, to endow the center’s programs and to support affiliated arts groups.

The endowment for artistic programs, which had stood at $6-million, will receive $10-million. The remainder of the gift will be divided among the center’s 12 affiliated groups — which include Lincoln Center itself, the Metropolitan Opera, and the New York City Ballet.

Mr. Robertson, chairman of the investment company Tiger Management, attached no stipulations to his donation other than to name both the new endowment fund and the center’s fountain plaza after his wife, Josie.

The University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, has received a $20-million pledge from Barbara J. and Roger W. Rossier to endow the School of Education.

Mrs. Rossier is president of Rossier Enterprises, which, among its real-estate holdings, owns the Rossier School, a California facility for developmentally disabled children. Mrs. Rossier recently retired as director of the school; Mr. Rossier works there as a consultant.

The university will honor the couple by renaming the School of Education, where Mrs. and Mr. Rossier received their Ed.D. degrees in 1971 and 1972, respectively.

* A $15-million trust established by Stella Porter Russell, the widow of a successful land developer, will fatten the paychecks of full-time faculty members at Southern Methodist University, in Dallas.

Mrs. Russell, who died in 1968, stipulated that, after the death of the last of the beneficiaries of the trust’s income, which occurred last November, the corpus be turned over to S.M.U. to endow annual salary supplements for full-time professors. The university currently employs 502 such teachers, who can expect an initial bonus of approximately $880 each in November.

* The Delos V. Smith Senior Center, in Hutchinson, Kan., has received an estimated $14-million from its late founder, an actor and investor.

Mr. Smith had established the center in 1987 after starting a fund 10 years earlier to benefit elderly people in Reno County, Kan. The fund’s role eventually became to safeguard the center’s finances, to which Mr. Smith was the sole contributor.

Mr. Smith’s gift, which could be worth as much as $15-million, depending on how federal auditors assess the estate, comprises investments and property and represents nearly all of his estate.

Mr. Smith, who died last September at the age of 93, acted on stage, television, and in films, including One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Other recent gifts:

Averett College (Va.): $1,000,000 from an anonymous donor for capital improvements.

Children’s Hospital Medical Center of Akron (Ohio): $1,600,000 from Jim Oelschlager of Akron, founder of Oak Associates, an investment firm, and his wife, Vanita, to establish a center for child advocacy.

Community Memorial Hospital of San Buena Ventura (Cal.): $5,100,000 bequest from the estate of Ord and Laura Toomey of Saticoy, Cal., former professional singers who ran avocado and lemon ranches, for unrestricted use.

Fort Hays State U. (Kan.): $3,500,000 bequest from the estate of Paul Miller of Hays, Kan., a banker, for scholarships.

Hospital for Special Surgery (N.Y.): $4,100,000 from Alberto W. Vilar of New York, chief executive officer of Amerindo Investment Advisers, to establish the Center for Research of the Hand and Upper Extremity.

Jewish Community Center on the Upper West Side (N.Y.): $9,000,000 from Frederick P. Rose of Rye, N.Y., chairman of Rose Associates, a real-estate investment firm, and his family, for the campaign to construct the Samuel Priest Rose Building, the new home of the JCC.

Miss Hall’s School (Mass.): $1,000,000 from an anonymous donor to construct an athletics center.

North Carolina Museum of Art: Paintings and funds totaling $1,000,000 from William R. Roberson of Washington, N.C., a retired businessman and former secretary of the North Carolina Department of Transportation, and his wife, Frances, for the museum’s collection and its acquisitions fund.

Seattle Symphony: $5,000,000 from an anonymous donor for the capital campaign.

Southern Methodist U. (Tex.): $1,000,000 from Kenneth R. Morris of Sonoma, Cal., senior vice-president for technology at PeopleSoft, a computer company, and his wife, Linda, an investment manager, for technology equipment and services.

U. of Akron (Ohio): $4,000,000 bequest from the estates of Harold H. Schroeder, retired assistant vice-president for personnel relations at AT&T, and his wife, Pauline, for scholarships for education and engineering students.

Ursuline College (Ohio): $4,000,000 from John G. Breen of Shaker Heights, Ohio, chairman of Sherwin-Williams, and his wife, Mary Jane, to endow the School of Nursing and for capital needs.

Wells College (N.Y.): $1,000,000 bequest from the estate of Richard D. Wells of Mobile, Ala., a journalist, for scholarships. Mr. Wells was the sole respondent to a fund-raising gimmick tried by the college in the early 1940s, when it solicited donations from everyone in the Manhattan telephone directory with the surname “Wells.”